Thrown Into Lent

I have not yet caught my breath from the Haiti Trip and last night we hosted the first of five Lenten Services with some other churches. I have always believed the church is more than the pastor and that showed last night because there is no way I could have pulled it off by myself.. We had a great time of fellowship and worship thanks to the great people of Good Shepherd Christian Church.
We had a great crew prepare the dinner of our traditional chicken and noodles, onion soup and sandwiches. The activity was bustling around the tables and with lots of noisy fellowship  and positive sounds. The only major problem was we did not have enough room for all the people we could have used about three or four more tables for people to eat and more worship space. But what a nice problem to have. I guess it shows these five churches really do Lent well together.
The worship service was wonderful.The singing was wonderful with a full church singing with vigor. The bell choir and the vocal choir sounded good and received many accolades. My friend and colleague Ron Keel from the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection delivered the opening message on the parable of the Mustard seed. He brought forth a good and challenging word for us all. I came away not only with some new insight wondering what does it mean that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed being the fact that a mustard seed is a weed that was forbidden to be grown intentionally in the culture of Jesus. Something thought to be a weed or a unimportant plant is like the Kingdom. It really causes me to think how God is really open to the least of these and my approach needs to be like that of the Christ.
Having observed Ash Wednesday in a non-traditional way (on a mission trip in Haiti) last night was my first Lenten experience of the season. I once again see the value and the richness of Lent in bring forth new meaning and new discoveries to my faith. I can not wait for the next Wednesday Service when we gather in close quarters and celebrate as a community of believers.